Your Digital Identity Checklist: 5 Do’s and Don’ts 💼

Blogpost by Noel Czempik (Student Digital Champion)

Taking charge of your digital identity is now more crucial than ever. Safeguard your privacy, strengthen your security, and unlock potential professional opportunities with the short guide below.

1. Review Your Privacy Settings

Take advantage of tools that allow you to display your content as it’s visible to your audience, customise privacy settings for individual posts or modify what information can be used to search your profile. You can read this article for more information on the privacy settings available on the most popular social media sites.

2. Share Thoughtfully

Don’t solely rely on privacy settings. Think before posting, considering the potential impact on your reputation and safety. Be cautious of content that could be misinterpreted or taken out of context, and don’t share sensitive personal information unnecessarily.

3. Monitor Your Digital Footprint

Regularly search your name online to assess available information. Consider setting up alerts for new mentions or content associated with your name.

4. Curate Your Content

Align shared content with your desired digital image. Remove or update outdated or irrelevant information.

5. Build a Professional Online Presence

Showcase skills and achievements on professional platforms, maintaining a professional tone and image in your communication. For example, you can add certificate of completions for LinkedIn Learning courses on your personal LinkedIn account. For multi-purpose platforms, consider creating separate profiles for personal and professional use. If you are interested in building a LinkedIn profile, a recording of the Careers Services’ LinkedIn session is available here.

For further information about managing your digital identity, you can watch the Careers Services’ session on this topic from the Digital Skills Festival.

Begin a new chapter – Apps to help your reading habits 📖

Blogpost by Shân Saunders (Digital Capabilities and Skills Development Coordinator)

With the advancement of phones and technology there’s now an app for everything – including reading! As an avid reader I like to challenge myself with yearly goals, discuss books with fellow readers and gain reading stats. With my top three reading apps – all of these are possible!

Goodreads

Goodreads is great for tracking your current reads and staying on track for your reading goals.

Set yourself a yearly reading challenge and Goodreads will tell you whether you’re on track.
Track your current reads to see how far through you are.
Receive a badge if you reach your goal.
View books you’ve read in previous years.
Create reading shelves for your needs like “want to read”.
Scan book covers instead of searching for them.
Discover new books based on your recent reads, new releases and trending books.

DigiTip 21: Copy and paste content in Word without messing up your formatting 📃

13 February 20247 January 2025 WordPress User [sil12] Digital proficiency and productivity, DigiTips, Microsoft Support, Microsoft Word Leave a comment

Have you ever copied and pasted content from a webpage or another document into a new Word document and found that it completely messes up your formatting? Luckily, there are additional options outside of the basic pasting option (ctrl+v) which can help solve this!

Start by selecting where you want to paste your content and right-click with your cursor. You’ll then find several additional paste options (the options visible will be based on the type of content that you’ve copied).

Here’s a summary of what the most common 4 paste options will do:

Keep Formatting

This keeps the formatting of the text that you’ve just copied (be it from a webpage, another document, or another source).

Merge Formatting

This option changes the formatting of the text so that it matches the formatting of the text that surrounds it.

Use Destination Styles

This option formats the copied text so that it matches the formatting of the text where you’ve pasted your text

Keep Text Only

This option discards any existing formatting AND any non-text elements you have copied (e.g. images or tables).

To follow our DigiTips, subscribe to our Digital Skills Blog. Or alternatively, you can bookmark this webpage, where a new DigiTip will be added each week!

DigiTip 20: Introducing To Bach ⌨

6 February 202416 January 2024 Shân Saunders DigiTips Leave a comment

Have you struggled to write in Welsh on your computer? Used shortcuts or symbols to insert a circumflex and accents for Welsh letters? Struggle no more!

Free on all AU computers from the Company Portal you can now download the To Bach software. For personal computers, To Bach is available to download for free!

Once downloaded, to insert letters with a circumflex all you have to do is select “Alt Gr” and your respective vowel (e.g., â ê î ô û ŵ ŷ).

Key Stroke	Symbol
Alt Gr + a	â
Alt Gr + e	ê
Alt Gr + o	ô
Alt Gr + i	î
Alt Gr + y	ŷ
Alt Gr + w	ŵ
Alt Gr + u	û

For further information visit the FAQ here.

To follow our DigiTips, subscribe to our Digital Skills Blog. Or alternatively, you can bookmark this webpage, where a new DigiTip will be added each week!

DigiTip 19 – Quick Steps in Outlook ⚡

30 January 20247 January 2025 WordPress User [jpl11] DigiTips, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Support Leave a comment

Do you want to be able to save time using Outlook by running multiple tasks efficiently?

With DigiTip 19, we will be having a look at how to set up your Quick Step recipe. When an email comes through to your inbox, with just one click you can mark it as read, move it to a specific folder, automatically send a reply and many other options.

Watch the video below for a brief demonstration:

To follow our DigiTips, subscribe to our Digital Skills Blog. Or alternatively, you can bookmark this webpage, where a new DigiTip will be added each week!

DigiTip 18 – Express yourself with Emojis with the hidden keyboard shortcut 🥳🤩💖

23 January 202411 April 2024 WordPress User [sil12] Digital communication, collaboration and participation, DigiTips Leave a comment

Emojis have become an essential part of how we communicate, and they can be fantastic for expressing our emotions with just a single character 🥰🤣🙄🤯😴

Most of us will be more familiar with using emojis on our mobile phones 📱, but there will be times when we’ll want to include emojis when using our laptops or computers 💻. Instead of googling for the emoji you need, why not access it directly from your keyboard!?

On both Windows and Mac, you can access your emoji keyboard in seconds by selecting:

Windows – Windows Key + “.” (period button/full stop)
Mac – Command Key + Control + Spacebar

Watch the video below to see how this shortcut works on a Windows device.

To follow our DigiTips, subscribe to our Digital Skills Blog. Or alternatively, you can bookmark this webpage, where a new DigiTip will be added each week!

Take a look at our Digital Skills Festival 2023 resources!

17 January 20248 January 2024 WordPress User [jpl11] Digital Skills Festival Leave a comment

We would like to extend a big thank you to all our speakers and participants who attended Aberystwyth University’s first Digital Skills Festival in November 2023.

With 28 different digital events being held over 5 days, it was fantastic to be able to offer a variety of sessions ranging from an introduction to learning how to code to understanding the importance of our digital wellbeing and digital identity.

From our Digital Skills Festival website, you are now able to access all the recordings and resources from the sessions during the week so please take a look if you would like to refresh your knowledge on what you learnt or if you were unable to attend.

We look forward to seeing you all at the next Digital Skills Festival in 2024!

DigiTip 17: Organise your work with Tasks in Teams ✍

16 January 20247 January 2025 Shân Saunders DigiTips, Microsoft Support, Microsoft Teams Leave a comment

Are you a planner but struggling to be productive? Do you work better with a to-do list, but you want everything in one place? Introducing Microsoft Teams Task by planner!

You can create your own to-do lists, break these down into daily to-do lists and even view tasks that have been assigned to you in Microsoft Teams channels.

To create your To Do List:

Go to the Apps icon on the left-hand side of MS Teams
Search for and install the Tasks by Planner and To Do app
At the bottom of the planner, select ‘+ New list or plan’
Enter any task, select the priority and due date
Once completed select the circle and the task will complete itself

To break down your to-do list to more achievable goals you can add tasks from your to-do list to “my day” which will refresh every day.

Watch the video below for a demo on how to use Microsoft Teams Tasks by planner.

To follow our DigiTips, subscribe to our Digital Skills Blog. Or alternatively, you can bookmark this webpage, where a new DigiTip will be added each week!

Digital Decluttering: A Student Guide To Organising your Digital Spaces

11 January 202415 February 2024 Noela Czempik [mnc7] Digital Identity and Wellbeing, Digital Wellbeing Series, Student Digital Champions Leave a comment

Blogpost by Noel Czempik (Student Digital Champion)

Most of us engage with digital devices daily, and just like our physical spaces, they often become home to clutter, affecting our wellbeing and productivity. In this blog post, I will share the most effective strategies for reclaiming my digital spaces.

Preparing For Your Decluttering Journey

Try approaching your clutter with curiosity rather than judgment. This will help you stay positive and better understand your digital habits. Visualise the positive impact decluttering will have on your wellbeing.
Expect this process to take time. Sorting through years of accumulated digital content can be daunting, but sizing up the challenge and allocating the right time and space can make it more manageable.
Start with the quick wins that will make the most immense impact with minimal effort. This will allow you to build up momentum and approach the more difficult tasks with empowerment.
Consider any upcoming longer journeys as opportunities to make progress on your decluttering adventure.
Deciding what to keep and what to delete may be challenging. Ask yourself what would happen if everything were to disappear?

Quick Wins: Small Actions Can Yield Big Results

Each of these 5-10 minute tasks is beneficial alone, but as you progress through the list, their impact compounds for greater effect.

Cleaning your desktop: Delete unnecessary files and find a home for the rest to achieve the bliss of an empty virtual desk.
Decluttering your apps: You might be surprised at the number of apps on your phone or desktop that you no longer notice. Uninstall any apps you don’t use to free up space and minimise distractions.
Customising your home screen: Make apps that you want to use often more accessible and hide ones that are likely to distract you by using folders. Consider adding shortcuts to quickly access lists such as shopping, gift ideas or business ideas lists, preventing you from adding to the clutter with every stroke of genius.
Reviewing your notification settings: Disable unhelpful notifications to avoid overloading your lockscreen.
Customising your taskbar and quick access bars: Delete or unpin features you don’t find useful to implement your organisational systems.
Cleaning your downloads folder: Eliminate unnecessary files and duplicates to free up space.
Decluttering your browser: Remove unused extensions and bookmarks to streamline your browsing experience and pin the tools you’d like to use more often. Consider clearing your cookies and cache to protect your privacy, keeping in mind you might get signed out or remove saved preferences on some sites.
Clearing your screenshots: The screenshot folder is often a catch-all for single-use files.

DigiTip 16 – Reduce eyestrain with a blue light filter 👓

9 January 20248 January 2024 WordPress User [jpl11] DigiTips Leave a comment

Do you often find yourself having tired eyes after looking at your device for too long? In DigiTip 16, we will be having a look at how to use a blue light filter setting, to reduce the amount of blue light emitted from your device’s screen.

On Windows devices, follow the system settings below to activate “Night light”:

Select Start on your windows taskbar and type in Settings in the search box
From Settings, then choose System before finding the Display option
Once you have chosen the Display option, select Night light
With “Night light” switched on, warmer colours will be used on your screen to help block out blue light
To personalise when “Night light” will be in use on your device, choose the Schedule night light option where you can either select Sunset to sunrise or select Set hours to choose your own custom times for it to begin and end before closing the window

On MacOS devices, follow the system settings below to activate “Night Shift”:

Go to the Apple menu to open the option System Preferences
Through System Preferences, select the Displays icon
On the top of the window, click on the Night Shift tab
Select the Schedule drop-down list before choosing Custom
To personalise when “Night Shift” will be in use on your device, you can either select Sunset to sunrise or select Custom to choose your own set times for it to begin and end, before clicking Done

To follow our DigiTips, subscribe to our Digital Skills Blog. Or alternatively, you can bookmark this webpage, where a new DigiTip will be added each week!